


when I walk down the memory lane

by VolxdoSioda



Series: Whumptober 2018 (Complete) [30]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Day 30 - Caretaker, Gen, Growing Old, Relying on Each Other, Whumptober
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-08-09 08:49:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16446641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VolxdoSioda/pseuds/VolxdoSioda
Summary: They walk tall.It's all they can do anymore.





	when I walk down the memory lane

The Shields of the Lucian Kings are meant to be protectors. They put their lives on the line so another may live, and that runs with it significant risk. If death does not find them before it finds their kings, injury or significant disability usually does. Gladiolus is no exception.

The Hand of the King is usually kept out of the line of fire, but the Scientia have never masked their ability to cause death and destruction when called for it. Ignis is as loyal as Gladio is brave, and does not put down his knives no matter how his cousins or aunts or uncles on the far reaches of Altissia beg him to do so, offering him positions as politicians instead. He refuses, and for that refusal and his loyalty, he suffers.

Prompto was never human to begin with. Despite his friends' reassurances, despite their love and care, he knows he will likely die long before any of them. After all, the barcode on his wrist speaks of a not particularly long-lived type of MT, and he's been battered and bruised heavily over the years, suffering wounds not many would be able to come back from were it not for being friends with Noctis. Regardless, he marches on, cheerful on his path.

Noctis has the legacy of old Kings on his shoulders, the voices of the Astrals whispering Prophecies in his ears. He has been assaulted by daemons, by Kings, by troubles and tribulations, and been told on no uncertain terms that he might survive to see the dawn, but he won't have a legacy. The Lucis Caelums will die with him, just as the Amicitia, Scientia, and Argentums will die with his friends. There will be no more old Kings, no more Shields or Hands or MTs. They will fade from history like old ink off a page, and be forgotten, left to remain with the spirits in a dead Citadel.

Regardless, they keep walking tall. Support one another even as their bodies fail, as their minds slip. Between the four of them, they keep sane, though just barely. They walk tall, and in their minds, they are young and whole and still on a twisting road bound for Altissia, laughing and joking the whole way. Ardyn does not exist. They are home.

They walk tall.

It's all they have left to do, anymore.


End file.
